Russian Futbol

I was asked in a recent facebook chat by a friend to talk to you about the soccer side of my experience here.  I thought this was a funny request seeing as many of you probably dont want to hear a bunch of soccer terms and it might be boring, but then I also realized that the reason I am here is for soccer and it would be very silly of me to leave that out of my blogs.  So, let me give you my experiences with the soccer here.

First of all as you all know, it is NOT soccer, it is futbol.  And every once in a while I slip up and accidentally say soccer and I sound like an absolute fool.  Not only do people not know what I am talking about, but soccer just sounds stupid.  Its like futbol is a beautiful word that just rolls of the tongues of foreigners and then I say soccer which sounds like a nasally pronounced, prudent insult or something.

Also as most of you know, futbol is the world's game.  It is the biggest sport, hands down, in every country around the world EXCEPT America.  So, being a "futboler" is a special title to have here. As this is my career choice for now, it is my responsibility to spend my days by taking care of my body.  With that of course comes running, lifting, sweating, stretching, eating healthy, staying hydrated, getting sleep and also, resting. There are many differences between playing professionally and playing in college, or with national teams even though it is still your responsibility to do all of that stuff when you are on those teams as well.  But, here, that is ALL you have to do.  I have no other responsibilities than to get myself prepared for the next match and to win.

But, the differences go much deeper than that.  Playing in college was one of the best experiences I have had with the game.  Obviously, that went up and down, but I loved college soccer.  Especially in Portland.  Portland truly takes the world's perspective when it comes to futbol.  It is enjoyed and appreciated.  The fans at Portland were incredible.  The best I have ever had the opportunity to play for and to get to know.  The school supported us and in turn we did our best to put on a good show.  If I may say so myself, the Pilot Fans were better fans than the "Crazy Energy" fans we have here (no offense, Energy fans, I am probably just biased).

But the futbol here is also much different.  All my life I have played for and learned my own style from possession oriented teams.  In Colorado for the Colorado Rush (who will be my true team and club until I die), we were taught from the beginning to keep the ball on the ground, to play quickly and simply. The best coach I have ever played for, Erik Bushey said that we had to be that much better at our style than the opponent is at their style because our style was more difficult to win with when playing teams who are more athletically talented. And, that proved to be successful because we won back to back national championships with him. Two of my proudest moments in my career. Then as I was looking at colleges I found that Portland shared that same view on possession futbol and playing simply to win that the Rush did and I felt that was the best fit for me.

The biggest difference at UP was the work load though.  I remember my first running session at UP with T-Fav I finished the 300s crying, and drooling and I think I might have peed my pants also.  I remember thinking "NO WAY, I have 4 more years of THIS??" But, I made it and I am so appreciative for the hard work we were asked to put in there, because I am not afraid of any work out that anyone gives me anymore.  If I can do a T-Fav work out I can do anyone's work outs. We were, I believe, the fittest team in the country.  I was surrounded by players who out in an insane amount of work every day, without question. And every game we were prepared to out work the other team, run them into the ground. And, on most occasions we were successful at that and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

But, now to Russia, there is a completely different view on what is the correct style.  Most of the girls here play only with their dominant foot.  The speed of play is very fast, but it is more because of the abundance of long balls.  Our coach tells us that there is no need for small passes.  That they dont get you anywhere, instead put the ball over the top and everyone run forward.  Get the ball as far away from your goal and to the opponents goal as quickly as possible.  They are also extremely aggressive.  It reminds me of playing with a very direct youth boys team.  Its fast, strong and aggressive, but not very clean. The running and lifting is very different than what I experienced in college.  The practices consist of one or two drills repeated for two to three hours.  It is the repetition that breeds success.

I have played for coaches who are yellers, who are not afraid to tell you that you messed up, to let their voices be heard, but I have never seen any coach in America that come close to the yelling of the Russians.  Before every practice and game, I not only have to prepare my body to work hard and my mind to think fast but I also have to prepare my emotions to be calloused to the insults and harsh coaching lessons they yell at us.  However, I have also seen that even though they often make me feel tiny and insignificant, they are only doing so because they want perfection.  They are trying to make me see my mistakes and to fix them, and their way of doing so is by yelling.  And although that seems a bit of overkill, their mission is just the same as any other coach I have played for... to make us better players.

I thought that when Tim Schultz threw cones at us and kicked us out of practice that he was crazy.  I thought when Erik Bushey screamed, round house kicked garbage cans or tents or other objects near him, that he was crazy.  I thought that when G looked us in the eye and yelled at us for spilling eggs on our shorts that he was crazy.  But now, I realize that all three of those coaches were the best coaches I have ever had and I am a better person and player for playing for them and their teams.  That when they were yelling, I was scared yes, but I was also learning.  And in retrospect, their craziness was at least rational and for good reason.  In hindsight, their yelling was nothing compared to my Russian coaches yelling.  Their craziness was a good warm up for playing here.  So, thanks guys, for yelling at me.  I needed it and I would be home already if it werent for all of you yelling at me getting me prepared for this team. I say this, not as though it is a bad thing.  I thought at first that it was, that they hated me.  But I have found that they yell because as I said, they want me to be better.  That is just their style, and that is ok... hard to adjust to, but ok.

That is my experiences with Russian futbol and professional futbol.  There is probably a ton I have left out, but it is all I can think of right now. We are back to two-a-days for a few more days.  The weather has stayed beautiful, sunny and warm! The chicken and rice and cabbage is getting pretty old but it is not bad.  All my love to everyone back at home... o yes that reminds me...


CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE RECENT COLLEGE GRADS!!!! I wish I could be there to share in the celebrations with you all.  I cant believe it is over and it is time for the real world.  I am so proud of all of you!!!!

Cheers!

Dani

My newest Nickname

Again, I apologize for the long break between blog posts… I have been a bit tongue tied as of late due to some conflicting emotional peaks and valleys I have been experiencing.  But, not to worry, my head is held higher than ever! I don’t know if any of you have heard about our last game, but we unfortunately lost the semi finals 2-1.  It was a very interesting game.  But, enough about that… I have been able to keep my head high by focusing on things that I really enjoy like taking pictures, and walking around town with my good friend here, Ximel. 

I should first tell you that I have taken on a new nickname that I find to be a bit of an insult... a couple nights ago before going to dinner I decided to take out my contacts because my eyes were burning a bit.  I put on my glasses and went down to dinner. As I walked in all the coaches started laughing and one of them said "Oye, Hillary!" Of course, not knowing they were referring to me I just proceeded to stand in line to get my food.  But again... "Hillary! Hillary Clinton!" And then the Russian girls were laughing too... and then it hit me that they were talking to me... they were calling me Hillary because she is probably the only American female they know who is not just a body or a face on the cover of a magazine... and I have glasses on soooo clearly I look like Hillary Clinton... I chuckled a bit thinking ya ya, real funny... American women... sooooo funny how smart we are... ha ha.  But the Russians got a real kick out of it, so much so that it has since stayed.  They never really got the hang of my name "Zaneela" as that was a mouth full plus we already have a Danny on the team... so I was just "America"... and now I am either "America" or "Hillary" (pronounced "Am-ed-eeka" and "Heel-a-dee").  The worst part was that one of the Russian girls said "choo choo"... which meant that she actually thought I looked a little like Hillary Clinton...

I see NO resemblance (except maybe the cankles)... but maybe I am biased. 

A few days ago Ximel and I took a long walk into downtown to soak in the sun and pass the time.  Here are some pictures of our adventures!

 The flowers are beginning to bloom

 Cherry blossoms

 The usual protection around a neighborhood

One of the Voronezh Sea bridges

 The same bridge

 Couples attach locks on the bridge and throw the key into the seas

 I dont know who this guy is but he looked important

 A WWII memorial

 Some of the flowers in front of the memorial

 We stopped at a cafe that looked nice

 The typical house

 Another typical house... hope they didnt see me standing on their front porch

So, anyways, as I said when we returned from Krasnada, we came home to summer and it has stayed!  The trees and flowers have bloomed, the clouds have vanished and I have got that Turkish tan back!  But, because we are no longer in the Russian Cup we don’t have another game until the 14^th, which means that we have 2 weeks of training. So we have will be using those 2 weeks to get fit for two big games we have coming up.  We first play Zurkey, which is the team in 3^rd place followed by Rossiyanka, the team in 1^st place.  In preparation we have been doing two-a-days.  In the morning we drive about 30 minutes to a forest.  It is so beautiful and it feels so good to be in nature again!  I think that is the one thing I have dearly missed.  The running is tough, but nothing compared to a T-Fav workout, which, I might be crazy to say that I miss! Then in the afternoon we do a bit more of running/some lifting/ some odd ball work.

We have done 3 days of hard work and will have tomorrow off and then 3 more days of the same thing before we start training again for the games.  But, because of UP’s preseason schedule I feel more than prepared for the hard work that we have been putting in here.  I am actually enjoying these days more than the days when we had practice once a day because we couldn’t really do much else on those days, which got pretty boring after a while… that explains why I successfully finished ALL the Harry Potter books in 3 weeks.  Pretty nerdy if you ask me… but what ever!

Needless to say I CANT WAIT for our next game on the 14^th in Moscow!  I feel the team is getting prepared.  I also know that none of this work will matter if we are not up to working hard come the 14^th. 

I have also been filling my time with Spanish.  It is ironic that I go to Russia and come away better at Spanish.  I have kind of given up my efforts to learn Russian for two main reasons… The first being that the best way for me to communicate with my friends here has been in Spanish, and the more I fill my mind with several other languages, the worst all of them become, even my english.  I start losing my English words and speaking in broken sentences, not to mention how the few Spanish words I know just go right out the window.  Secondly, there was a point when I understood a tiny bit of what the Russians were yelling at me, and I made the conscious decision to stop learning Russian because I didn’t want to know what they had to say because it was mean.  So I stopped learning to hear the language but I have still work on reading Russian.  

Because they use a different alphabet, learning to read was our first lessons and I still enjoy reading signs I see. This got me to thinking… in the US we have so many statistics about underprivileged people who are illiterate and the importance of being literate and educated… and then I realized that I am that underprivileged person.  As an educated person I have become underprivileged by moving here… I can’t read, I can’t write and I can’t speak.  If it werent for the players on my team helping I wouldnt be able to use the buses, get a job, or even order a coffee. What an interesting place to be. I suppose I would be putting in more effort to learn this language if it were completely necessary but it is an interesting role to play for the time being.  And, every once in a while, when I am trying to read signs as we drive or walk anywhere I find a word that I am able to sound out that is an English word.  I always get so excited when this happens… like I just decoded a secret Russian code or like I am a little kid who was able to read their first word.  Learning to read is a tough task, but it’s sort of exciting! But that’s all… I am more interested in speaking Spanish, which as many of you know is not my strong suit either.  But I am giving that my best effort as of now!

Wish me luck with the remainder of the two-a-days… as G says… “The day AFTER a day off is the hardest…” So, I will let you know how I feel come the end of this mid-season-pre-season haha.  Hope all is well!!

Cheers!!

Dani

video highlights from game 3

Here is the link to the highlight video from our last game, when I scored!  I am number 11 in red.

Highlight Video

I would like you all to notice the high quality sound of the inspirational song as we walk onto the field... if any of you have seen the movie "Victory"... I felt like I was a part of that movie.  Enjoy!! HA

3rd Game

Because I know most of you are itching to hear how the game went I will first give you a recap of the game and then I will get into what was more interesting to me than the game… our travel experience. We won 3-0 and I scored all 3 goals.  It was really exciting.  We played the same team that we played in our last game, FC Klubanochka. The field was a lot bigger than our field, which I think suited our style of play much more than a small field.  The first two goals were header goals and the last was off a long ball that I was able to beat the goalie with my first touch and had an open goal to pass into.  It was really exciting.  I only played about 70 minutes this game, which was a good break because we have our next game on Monday in the Russian Cup again!!

But, now to the more interesting stuff… our travel experience… So, we played Thursday at 4 and here was our travel itinerary for that…. Again, I feel quite deceived by the information I received about the travel time because I thought it was a 13 hour train ride… it was actually 19 hours.

We left Voronezh at 12:30 on Wednesday afternoon.  We got to the train station where we were given our compartment assignments and a bag of random food to share between the other person we were sharing a compartment with.  I was sharing with Simone, the Brasilian girl.  We were assigned to beds 26 and 28… so when we got there we were delighted to find we had the top two bunks over two elderly Russian women (Babushkas) who had been traveling for quite sometime already, we could tell by the pungent, stifling aroma coming from the compartment. 

For our pregame meal we were given some ramen noodles and bread, a whole cucumber and tomato each, a piece of cheese, and some salami.  Luckily for me Simone didn’t like cucumbers or tomatoes so I ate hers and brought a yogurt.  So my pregame dinner was 2 cucumbers, 2 tomatoes, a piece of cheese and a yogurt (apparently, it worked wonders!). 

We got our beds all made up and tried to fall asleep in our little area.  We arrived at 630 AM on Thursday.  Upon waking, the only reason I knew we were still in Russia was because of the abundance of patched together houses, fenced in and broken buildings, trash on the ground and unpaved roads, other than that I would have thought I had arrived in some beach town. We woke up to 85 degree, humid weather.  It was like we left winter and arrived in summer.  All of the plants had bloomed and it was sunny and warm.  We got off the bus at 6:30 AM with sleep lingering heavily in our eyes and checked into a hotel for the day.  We had a bite of breakfast (yogurt) and went to our rooms to get some sleep (without being rocked awake every hour at train stops). We slept until about 12 in the afternoon and then woke up to get some lunch (yogurt) and get ready for our game at 4. 

At this point I had some coffee to ensure my eyes wouldn’t close as we left for the game… Then we got on a hot bus and left for the game.  In a large bus we drove down some tiny and bumpy dirt roads to get to a small hidden field, which turned out to be the WRONG field.  So, we had to get back on the hot bus and drive to the other side of town to make it to the right field with about 45 minutes left before the game.  We rushed to get ready and warm up.  Then we proceeded to dominate and win 3-0 to turn around get back on the bus. 

This time getting back to the hotel was even MORE of a nightmare than the ride there… the traffic was so bad that we literally moved 2 blocks in 30 minutes.  The bus was so hot and we were already so tired from the travel and game, plus we had to get back for our train ride home… so, we actually got off the bus with all of our gear and got on the street train car that was PACKED with people.  We took the train car about 10 stops forward and then got off on a street that didn’t have many cars and took 4 different taxis to get us finally back to our hotel.  We had to shovel in some rice and chicken as a post game meal and shower in 10 minutes, get back on the bus that, had now made it to our hotel, and head off for the train again. 

The team waiting by from the street car... notice the stream of traffic next to us

The packed street car we piled onto

The bus ride was obviously a happy one!

The team waiting for some taxis

Piling into the taxis

Our train departed at 930 PM and I took a Tylenol PM to make me pass out this time.  I awoke again to a sweltering, stinky compartment shared by 4 people with the same yummy food to eat.  We arrived back in Voronezh at 4:30 PM on Friday.  So, overall we traveled about 40 hours to play 1 game.  We might as well have flown back to the US to play a game and turn around and fly back.  Needless to say, I have already gotten to the 7^th Harry Potter book with all of this time and I have spent the rest of my time trying to catch up on sleep and food that I was not able to get on the train. 

I remember at UP we played on the East Coast once or twice and we left a good 2-3 days before to ensure the travel didn’t play a role in our performance… I can say now that there are ABSLUTELY NO EXCUSES for travel playing a role in performance.  You just need to be ready to do anything for 2 hours of your day.  Everything else can just be thrown to the side… I don’t care how tired you are… just get yourself ready for those 2 hours and then you can figure everything else out after.  That is, after all, the reason you are traveling that far… to win.  And that is exactly what we did… hope we can keep it up!!

Next game is on Monday as I said… keep posted!!

Cheers!!

Dani

Week full of Futbol

Well it has been a trying couple of days because, with the results of the last weeks games we are inching closer to the team that is in 1st place, Rossiyanka.  We are only 4 points behind now.  Not only has the amount of time the coaches want to see our faces each day increased but the volume level during coaching points has definitely risen above inside voices.  As professional athletes it is our responsibility to spend an adequate amount of time studying our sport, becoming students of the game... and so a few days ago we went to support the men's team in Voronezh...which reminds me... that "other thing that was more important than our home opening game" was in fact the stadium's way of saying that it didnt want us playing on the field before the men's game a few days later.... as though girls tear up a field, what ever.  Anyways, we got to go watch the Voronezh men's team play and that was a cool experience! 

 This is our stadium

 Me, Simone, Ximel and Tanya

The game was really fun to watch and Voronezh won 2-1!! But, while all of these pictures were being taken I was asked by a few of the Russian girls to take a picture of them.... they basically just handed me the phone with the camera on it and said "Zaneela, pazshalsta..." (that means... Danielle, please).  So naturally I said "Yea, yea" and took the phone to take the picture.  You know how there is always an awkward bit when you ask someone to take a picture on your phone and because everyone's phone function completely different they start to take the picture and push the button they think is right and then it actually doesnt take the picture but takes them to your messages, or your old photos or something... well that happened.  And it brought me to a bunch of options or settings or something... I have gotten so used to seeing phones and computers in other languages that I didnt even try to figure out what I was looking at, so I just turned the phone around to have one of the other girls help me out.... One of the girls who barely speaks English said "Zits in Ingleski" I said "What??" She repeated "You reab, zits in ingleski" as she was pushing the phone back to me... not really understanding what she was saying, I turned the phone back around and realized that all of the options were in fact in English and I didnt even take the time to look.  Everyone was laughing at me, including myself...and I felt pretty silly for not even knowing my own language anymore.  Thats when I realized I was getting a bit lax with my blogging or, reading or maybe just my brain functionality...

We leave for our next game on Wednesday.  We will leave Wednesday morning and take the train 13 hours to get to our game. We play Thursday against the same team that we just went into PK's with.  It is the second leg of this round in the tournament.  So, we need to win.  But I will write after the game!! Hope all is well back at home!

Cheers!!

Dani

Nail Biter of a Game

We played our second game today.  It was our first home match, but unfortunately we were not able to play in our stadium.  I was told it was because there was something more important that was scheduled at the field... but I thought that story had some loop holes in it. What could possibly be more important than the city's only women's futbol home opener (for the second half of the season) on a Wednesday evening at our stadium?  I couldnt find any answers... so I assume it is because our field is not in the best shape because of the late winter weather we have had.

Regardless, it was really nice that we literally played at our HOME stadium.  We played on the turf training field that is on the base.  It is a really nice field, so I didnt mind, plus we didnt have to travel at all.  We are playing in the Russia Cup right now, which is played in a similar fashion to the Champions League.  For those of you who dont know... that just means that you play the same team twice, once at home and once away.  The combine the scores of both games to determine who goes through to the next round.  So we will play the same team again next week at their stadium.  Which will be interesting after today's match.

Again, I started at attacking midfield and again, the game was really fast and very direct.  This was an intense game... we went into PK's and by the end of the 120 minutes I literally couldnt run more then 3 steps without my calves and feet threatening to completely cramp up.  For those of you who have been lucky enough to witness how ridiculous I look when that does happen... lets just say it is not a pretty sight!

About 35 minutes into the first half they had a throw in level with the 18 yr box and they threw it into my player who flicked it over my head (making me look rather silly) and then she tried to shoot... but miss-hit is badly and the ball went rolling slowly to the opposite of the 18 yr box.  But because it was so slow our defenders werent really expecting any danger when their outside player came out of no where and scored before any of us really knew what had happened.  We went into half time knowing our coach was NOT going to be happy about that.

Then in the second half we got a free kick outside the 18 and one of our forwards took it... she chipped the wall of players standing in front and our outside back Dannilova brought it down calmly and scored a pretty sweet half volley to tie it up.  Then, I cant really remember how it happened but they scored another goal in about the 80th minute to go back up 2-1.  So we started throwing everything forward to try to score.  In about the 85th minute there was a long ball that was going out towards the side lines.  I chased it down and saved it just as it was about to go out... I dribbled into the 18 beat a player as the goalie was coming out, diving to the far post, leaving the entire near post open.  So I scored tying it back up 2-2.

Because this is a tournament we went into over time.  We had plenty of chances and probably could have scored and put it away a few times.  But it went into PK's.  They shot first and made their first, then I was the first on our team to take a PK and I scored.  Then they missed their next two.  All of our players made theirs and the score ended up 4-1... FC ENERGY WINS!!! Wahooooo!!!

It was a very exciting, very exhausting day to say the least. Not to mention I have decided to check another thing off my bucket list by reading the Harry Potter Series.  I am not joking when I say this, nor am I trying to brag about my reading abilities... BUT, I figured this would maybe help pass some free time in the next 2.5 months.  I am not sure if it is because these books are so good, or because we have so much down time, or maybe the combination of the two... but I have made it through the first 3 books in 3 days.  At this rate, this series wont even last me 2 weeks! I am going to try to slow my pace... but I doubt that will happen!

Anyways, CONGRATS to another win for FC Energy and here's to everyone back at home for following!

Cheers!

Dani

Easter Epiphany

Last week, while the rest of the Christian religious world was celebrating Easter, we were driving 10 hours to Moscow. My parents asked me “What is the traditional celebration for Easter in Russia?” My response was “Apparently nothing…?” But, I found out this week that in fact, Russia follows the “Old World” calendar and all of the holidays are celebrated late.  They celebrate Christmas on January 7^th and they celebrate Easter today, a week after everyone else. So, most everyone went home to spend time with their families this weekend. With the extra free time our translator, Tanya, and I went for a walk in downtown Voronezh yesterday.  She took me to the City Center, which I had walked around with Ximel the day we got lost… but this time Tanya showed me things I hadn’t seen before.

She showed me some of the major landmarks in Voronezh….

This is a sculpture of a hero dog (like Balto) out side of the main theater.  You are supposed to touch it and make a wish. Tanya told me she did it and her wish came true in 2 years….

This is a monument where people come when they are married and put a lock with their names on it.  It stands right next to be big bridge (which is called a “most” in Russian)… everyone used to attach locks on the rails of the bridge, but they erected this monument because the bridge was too full of locks.

She also took me to two of the main Orthodox churches in Voronezh.  This is when I found the Russian tradition for Easter.  All of the women bake a special type of bread that is tall and circular (kind of like a giant muffin).  It has raisins in it and then is frosted with white frosting and colorful sprinkles.  Then after the women finish baking it, they take it to the churches where holy people bless the bread. There were lines of women with their bread all the way around the churches. These are two of the churches we saw. 

Then we walked down to the waterfront where we walked along the Voronezh Sea for a bit.  With the bridge, the grey sky and the walkway by the water, I felt like I was back in Portland walking on the waterfront. 

Then this morning, on Easter morning, I woke up and took a walk in the surrounding neighborhood from my apartment back to the base.  On the way, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of happiness because I realized how unique of an experience and a culture I am living in. I was walking next to broken down houses on muddy dirt roads.  But the sun was out and there was the smell of spring in the air.  There was so many people and families out walking.  They were all in their Easter best and were carrying their bread and a bouquet of synthetic flowers (because nothing grows here) for their loved ones.  And, I realized, as I was walking that all of these people live so simply and they are happy with that.  They don’t care about the mud on their shoes, or the broken wood on their homes, they care about sharing the time with their family and celebrating the traditions of the culture.

Yesterday on the bus ride home with my translator I was trying to get money out of my wallet to pay for the bus, so I couldn’t hold on to anything to keep my balance.  As we were bumping over the pot holes and screeching to stops I was falling all over the place.  I ran into several people… after the 3^rd person I hit I started just laughing at myself.  I looked at the woman I accidentally sat on and smiled, but she didn’t smile back… My translator said this “In Russia, you don’t smile unless you truly have a reason to smile.  People are not fake and don’t give smiles generously.”

Then last night, the Jamaican, the Swede, one of the Cameroon girls, and I were discussing our cultures.  What we grew up in, what our families were like, what our futures will be when we finish futbol, and other things of that nature….

I realized that culture is such an amazing thing.  There is NO right or wrong, NO black or white, there is only differences.  No one can say that one is better than the other because it is like comparing apples and oranges.  There is no way for comparing, only ways of appreciating the differences.  The Russian people may not be handing out smiles, but neither do New Yorkers, or even two strangers (no matter the country).  We celebrate Easter by letting a giant bunny break into our homes to hide colored eggs and chocolate, heaven forbid we dont find one of the eggs he hid...  WHY any culture does the things they do is not for us to judge, it simply is the way it is.  I have found a new love for my country. I love America but I also have a new appreciation for other cultures because most everyone loves their country.  There is a patriotic pride in all of us. That is all that need be said.    

Happy Russian Easter! 

We have our next game on Wednesday in Voronezh.  My first home game! In Russian you say “dome” for home... and I will of course give you an update ASAP! 

Nastarovia! 

Cheers!

Dani